Shanbehzadeh Ensemble
Shanbehzadeh Ensemble was founded by Saeid Shanbehzadeh in 1990. Ensemble offers a rare aspect of the traditional music and dance of the Persian Gulf, more specially of the province of Boushehr, south of Iran and bordering Persian gulf. The music of Boushehr is an amalgam of the traditions of Persians, Arabs, Africans and Indians, thanks to the trading routes that intersected there.
The principal instruments the ensemble are the neyanbān (bagpipe), neydjofti (flute), dammām (drum), zarbetempo (percussion), traditional flute, senj (cymbal) and boogh (a goat’s horn). The Ensemble has delighted audience in Iran, Europe and North-America. At this festival the Ensemble will play as a father-son duo.
Saeid Shanbehzadeh (neyanbān, neydjofti, dammām), started playing music at the age of 7 in his native town of Boushehr with the old masters of the music of the region. He began with percussions, singing, and traditional dance. At 20 he founded the group of Shanbehzadeh Ensemble and won the 1st prize at the Fajr Festival in Tehran in 1990. A leading Internet portal in Tehran says: Saeid Shanbehzadeh swirls across the stage, falls into a state of trance and rouses the audience and band alike. He also researches and writes articles on the music of Southern Iran. In 1996 he was invited by the University of Toronto to teach a half-a-year course. In 1998 he was named the professor and director of the House of Culture, Music and Dance of the Isle of Kish in Iran.
Naghib Shanbehzadeh (tombak, zarbetempo) started to learn music in Boushehr and Kish with his father at the age of 3 and plays the traditional percussions of Southern Iran (dammām, doholgap, pipè, kesser). He has worked for 2 years on the tombāk in Tehran with the master Mahmoud Frahmand.
